Trying to make sense of a world gone mad.... blogging on Climate Change, War, Terror - plus local stuff about Bristol and music and more...

Tuesday, August 05, 2008

Climate Change Denial

Many will noticed the small but vocal band of people of pop-up in any public discourse on global warming to slam the idea and anyone who thinks that we may be impacting on the climate. They seem to think that uniquely, they are equipped to interpret the mass of data and see though the spin. The theories they spout come under three rough headings:

1.Climate Change is not happening (and/or)2.If it is happening then it is part of a natural cycle/solar activity/etc any other reason than human activity (and/or)3.It is happening but it is not a big deal and it is not worth doing anything about.

So if it is not happening or is not a big deal then why are there so many scientists backing it and so many people pointing to global warming as a major issue we need to tackle? Their response comes under (again) rough answers;

1.It is a ploy for new taxes/more control.2.It is a gravy-train for scientists/campaigners.3.It is a plot by the rest of the world to stamp on America's economy.

Now, there is an of obvious question, one that knocks a massive holes in the denial conspiracy theory: G W Bush.

Yes, G W Bush, currently the US President and the most powerful man in the world. When he wanted to invade Iraq, he did so and no global institution, laws, pressure or lack of evidence for WMDs was going to stop him. He is an oil man, and is closely allied with many of the most prominent global warming deniers - and he does not want global warming to be true. So if the science existed to even cast doubt on the theory, he and his people would have be shouting it from the hill-tops. Face it, if even the smallest opportunity presented itself for global warming to be cast down into the fiery pit, he would be on it. His tenure has been littered with appointments of his close global warming denier friends being given positions of power and those who think it is happening being removed, downgraded and cast aside.

This is the problem for the denial industry: despite having the most powerful man in the world and his people on-side, despite having some of the largest global corporations on-side, despite having the best funded and most powerful political think-tanks and lobby groups on-side – despite all this, the issue of global warming still exists.

"If you want to know about governments, all you have to know is two words: governments lie."I.F. Stone

"The State is an abstraction devouring the life of the people." Michael Bakunin

"...ironically, perhaps, the best organised dissenters in the world today are anarchists, who are busily undermining capitalism while the rest of the left is still trying to form committees."Jeremy Hardy